American Civil War historiography and publishing blogged daily by Dimitri Rotov.

11/01/2004

Franklin Battlefield - interesting gossip

On Friday, there was a corker of a letter to the editor of Franklin's paper about the conversion of the city golf course to battlefield. Among the points made:

...the mayor and the preservationists have the right idea, they just have it in the wrong place and even though that has been pointed out to them, they seem to turn a deaf ear. The way to reclaim the Battlefield of Franklin is the same today as it was 140 years ago. It will never change. Buy the property next to the Carter House, Move the ironic library (you can actually read in this library about how awful it is to build buildings on the blood stained, hallowed ground where men fought and died, like, say, for example, this LIBRARY), rebuild the Cotton Gin, and tear down that Pizza Hut — that's the start. To build a "pretend battlefield" on this golf course is nothing short of absurd.

I like this:

There is no doubt that the citizens of Franklin will one day reclaim their heritage, it has never been a question of ''if'', but has always been a question of ''when''. And when they do and all those visitors go to the REAL battlefield what in the world will the city then do with the ''pretend battlefield'' — turn it into a golf course?

This background info suggests some very dirty dealing:

An "investor", the Chairman Emeritus of the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), appeared suddenly one night and bought their [Franklin golf] club giving the members 10 days, (including mail time) to come up with $5 million or watch their Country Club get bulldozed into infinity. The members didn't have enough time to even call a preliminary meeting on the subject let alone negotiate a bank loan-but of course, this new "investor" knew THAT all along, so he told them he wouldn't bulldoze the place if someone else would pay him his $5 million. In the meantime the members can't say a lot about it or the "investor" might get mad and burn their club to the ground, and throw them out on their collective ear, which he has every right to do.